2% more than what PPP accepted – Govt

Oil royalties

Government on Tuesday came out swinging at what it said are political naysayers of its acceptance of two per cent royalties in its soon to be sealed partnership with US oil giant ExxonMobil.
The Government said that the royalties and profit-sharing revenue can be compared to world standard and will benefit all Guyanese.
In fact, it said that the two per cent royalties represent a 200 per cent increase on what the former People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government had negotiated before demitting office back in 2015.
At present values, it said the two per cent will now give Guyana $7.5 billion in annual revenues in addition to the 50 per cent share of profits.
It said therefore that the additional revenues negotiated represents a massive increase on what Guyana would have been saddled with under the PPP negotiated deal.

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo last week said the two per cent royalty at US$50 per barrel of oil will see Guyana earning a meager $8 billion per year from ExxonMobil, returns that can in no way solve Guyana’s unemployment problems and in fact gives rise to the real possibility of Guyanese being worse off.
He therefore called out Government over its duplicitous statements and challenged the Administration to release the contract it is inking with the US-based oil exploration company.
Jagdeo said he did not want to speculate but has observed statements by Minister Trotman to the effect that sections of the original contract had not been altered.
“Which part have you opened for renegotiation and why are you renegotiating… If we don’t know the baseline, are you negotiating more favourable or worse conditions.”
The Opposition Leader accuse Minister Trotman of politicking with oil and possible oil revenues since, according to Jagdeo, he has now intimated that the current Administration negotiated a better contract at two per cent more, than the one per cent negotiated by the PPP/Civic.
The former President defended the original contract, saying it has to be seen in the context that at that time, the Administration literally had to be begging companies to explore in Guyana.
“It was signed at a time when we were begging people to go explore out there,” Jagdeo recalled.
According to the former President, now PPP General Secretary and Opposition Leader, “In absence of making the entire contract public we think he (Trotman) is just cherry-picking and if you gonna snipe at the PPP, then make the entire contract public.”